Kevin Jairaj Photographs Olympic Athletes

Kevin Jairaj is no stranger to shooting both sports portraits and athletes in action. He recently had the opportunity to photograph Olympic athletes for a story in USA Today. Jairaj set up three different sets, one with a grey background, one with an American flag, and one with sequins in order to create fun catchlights. All three were lit with a variety of Profoto heads and modifiers.

As he writes, the pace of this event was “fast and furious.” The pressure was on both photographers and athletes to get everything done on time. With such limited time constraints, there would often only be enough time for a couple of shots, hence, he says, “we had to make them count!”

Jairaj calls the Profoto D1 Air Remote “a critical piece to the puzzle.” He used the remote to control three separate sets of lights remotely, “ensuring that we could shoot at a super high pace and not have to worry about adjusting lights….”